Matt Darriau - composer, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist - has impressively documented his interest in musical influences from outside the jazz world as early as 1986. His composition "Balkan Bounce" was the first piece on the debut record of the Boston big band Orange Then Blue and a kind of preview of Darriau's later development. This amazingly virtuosic and rousing horn player is a full-fledged jazz saxophonist and clarinetist: he proves this regularly, for example, in his band Ballin' the Jack, with which he devotes himself to jazz of the 1930s and 1940s. But traditional Balkan, Klezmer, Gypsy and Celtic music have always been an important part of Darriau's musical cosmos. He is a member of, among others, the popular Klezmatics, who play "Yiddish roots" with today's ingredients, the Celtic-influenced bands Whirligig and Smash the Windows, and the polystylistic Les Misérables Brass Band. With his New York Paradox Trio, Darriau translates traditional folk sounds into contemporary improvised music, crafts new pieces that mix the "old world" with modern ideas, and shines with masterful improvisations. The Paradox Trio - actually a quartet, formed in 1991 - had a formative effect on New York's downtown jazz scene, as Darriau was among the first wave of musicians to bring Eastern European and Middle Eastern melodies, scales and rhythms into the downtown mix. The band's drummer, Seido Salifoski, born in Macedonia, is at home in the Gypsy and Balkan traditions and has performed with Bulgarian masters Ivo Papasov and Yuri Yanakov, among others. Brad Shepik, also on the road with other Balkan-tinged jazz bands (Dave Douglas' Tiny Bell Trio, Pachora, his own formations), provides the angular modernist moments. Rufus Cappadocia, known for his experimental technique on the self-developed 5-string electric cello, is one of the most sought-after soloists on the downtown scene.